


Hello, World!

by Broken_Clover



Category: Guilty Gear
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Child Death, F/M, Mortality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:15:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25432216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broken_Clover/pseuds/Broken_Clover
Summary: It was almost impossible to hear the sound of cogs ticking over the music.
Relationships: Dizzy/Ky Kiske
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Hello, World!

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally planned as a fic for AU-gust, but I realized that it didn't exactly fit any of the themes it had. So I'm just going to put it up, anyway. Not sure how I managed to write two Ky/Dizzy fics consecutively when I barely ever write them at all.
> 
> This is partly inspired by the Vocaloid song 'Cruel Clocks'

A mahogany music box still sits on the shelf over the fireplace. The wings of the wind-up key had been broken with time, but if he held the remaining stub tight enough and twisted it, Ky could still watch the little silver angel spin in place to the soft, simple melody.

It had been a gift from him, for their third anniversary. Dizzy had adored the thing, spinning it over and over and over again and letting the music play for hours on end as they danced through the living room.

Ky pulled the object from its place, leaving behind a rectangle in the dust. He smudged a corner with a finger, sighed, and found a place to sit on the couch. It was far newer than the music box, but still thoroughly aged, if the cracks and lines in the leather were anything to go by. It still made a wonderfully comfortable place to sit, with many nights spent curled up with his wife by the fire. Ky opened the box again, watching the metal inside twinkling in the light.

A small photograph had been eased into the corner of the backplate, covering part of the mirror. Ky tugged it out and smiled fondly at the nervous-looking young man in a tuxedo, arms linked with a smiling, blue-haired woman in a beautiful white dress. Their wedding day, naturally. Dizzy had never looked so radiant. She had teased him over it too, over all the staring he did. He couldn’t help it, how could he not look at his wife in such a way?

A little frown creased his lips. He thumbed at a little gray marking in the corner, as though he could wipe it away. The cleaning droid at the venue had been a buggy little thing, scuttling into walls and ruining every other picture they tried to take as it zoomed by. It had been an older, cheaper model, even at the time. Though he imagined they weren’t so cheap now. Those models were probably antiques, more for rich collectors and museum displays than wandering the floor of wedding halls. Even the one they had now at the office was more advanced than that thing. But that’s how things worked, didn’t it? Every household robot, from floor-sweepers to helper droids all continued to advance into newer and fancier models with time.

Ky didn’t realize he’d been bending the picture. He set it on the coffee table, staring from a distance as he continued to cradle the music box in his arms.

The neighbors still thought it strange that they didn’t keep any household robots around. There were individual units for everything nowadays, window-washing to polishing to laundry. All Opus units. The newest batteries could allow them to run for nearly a year without any charging. They seemed to be quite impressive, but he had never had a personal droid. It wasn’t out of his budget, but he’d simply never found the need for one. 

The faint creaking of gears sounded, but the music box had already gone silent.

Standing back up, Ky placed the music box back where he had found it, lid still propped open with the little photograph on display. Next to it sat another picture, neatly framed. There he and Dizzy were again, along with a wild-haired man with gruff features and a petite woman with a bob of fiery red hair. They all sat on a carpet of grass, smiling up at where the camera had been.

The first day he had met Dizzy. The first time he had ever met a Gear, and the first time he had fallen in love.

She had been a gift, given to him by a friend. Frederick and his partner Aria had been veritable geniuses in mechanical innovation. Ky had bemoaned the concept at first, thinking it as some cruel joke being played on him. Did Frederick truly think he was so inept at romance that he needed to have a partner literally made for him?

Despite himself, it had been impossible to deny his adoration at first sight. He’d never seen a machine so perfectly lifelike before. The wings and vivid hair were clearly unnatural, but the skin, the eyes, everything about her was so beautiful that his heart had melted.

She was completely one of a kind, Frederick had said. At least for the time being. Gears were innovative beyond even the most cutting-edge robotics at the time, more lifelike and given the world’s first true artificial personality, the result of years upon years of research. Ky was his closest friend, and there was nobody else he would have trusted more with his prized work.

“We didn’t bother giving her a name.” Frederick told him. “Figured you’d like to do the honor.”

“I see.” It was such a strange thought, but he’d conceded. Regardless, such a beautiful creature deserved to have a beautiful name. He looked the robot in the eyes and said “I have chosen to name you ‘Daisy.’”

“Dizzy? My name is Dizzy?”

It had been her first independent action, it seemed cruel to try and deny it. So Dizzy it was.

He knew how brilliant Frederick and Aria were, but he had still managed to underestimate their work. Dizzy’s personality was complex, undoubtedly, but it must have had some kind of limit. Yet despite her wings, it was so easy to forget she wasn’t human. Maybe it was all the little quirks she had that he discovered over time- the little hiccup to her voice when she laughed too hard, her need to smell every flower she walked past, how she could never get the right amount of milk in her tea. All those small things made her feel so real, any of the slight concern he’d had about being around her melted away quickly. Having Dizzy around was just like having a roommate, and later, a wife.

Not legally, of course- for all his work on the Gears and the immediate success that they brought him, Frederick’s work was still too new to have solid legal boundaries. There was no definition on what made a machine ‘human.’ As far as the law was concerned, Gears were just another consumer robot, no more sentient than a toaster. Still, they hadn’t cared in the slightest. It had still been a beautiful day. Frederick had walked Dizzy down the aisle, seeing her as his child. Nontraditional as it was, Ky couldn’t have been happier.

Her body felt just like a human. He grew familiar with the warmth that radiated off her skin. Intimacy was so foreign to them both, but it just felt natural with one another. It was almost everything he’d ever wanted in life. He hoped that Dizzy was happy with the life she was given. The life she had with him. Because he was, he was happier that he’d ever been before in his life.

Of course, Ky had always wanted to start a family, but he could accept that some things just weren’t possible, even with how advanced a Gear was. He hadn’t shared that wish with her. He didn’t want Dizzy to feel inadequate or give her the silly idea that she was holding him back from something. She was more than enough, and he didn’t want her to be anything else.

It had been a bit of a surprise, then, when during one of their visits to Frederick’s house, she had begged and pleaded with her ‘father’ to let them experience what it was like to be parents. He wasn’t a miracle worker, but he had built the Gears, and he had no problem building another one.

Upon Dizzy’s behest, they had added a new member to their family- Sin, a mop-haired thing built with all the charms and quirks of a little boy. Ky never imagined the joys of having a child until they were thrust upon him, with sticky fingers and eagerly-scribbled family drawings to pin on the refrigerator. Just as Dizzy was no different from a woman, Sin was no different than a child. 

It was all so picturesque. He had been made perfectly. So perfectly, it had destroyed him. The accident had been so abrupt, nobody had been able to stop it. A simple day of reckless playing had ended with his head smashed open on a rock. The sight had been so unnatural, splintered chunks of metal and fibreglass spilling out from lifelike skin. Ky still had nightmares about it.

Dizzy had been devastated for months afterwards. It was the only time he could remember having legitimately argued with her. Frederick had offered to try and make them another child. Ky hadn’t been happy about the concept, but he’d mentioned it to her nonetheless. She responded to it worse than he could have imagined, screaming and throwing a table so hard it dislocated a piston in her arm.

It was nearly a year before they had been able to discuss what had happened at all. The tension had cooled over, but whenever they got near the topic, tensions would swiftly mount. It seemed like forever before Dizzy turned to him as they sat on the balcony, watching the stars, opened her mouth, and said

“It’s okay, honey. I’m not- not- not- not-”

Her voice skipped like a broken record caught in a loop, but her eyes had widened with shock. It was the first time she’d had a mechanical error since her creation. And though Frederick had fixed the issue with a couple of new screws and chided them for worrying so much, it was the first time they’d realized that she wasn’t immortal.

Truthfully, Ky had long accepted the concept that Dizzy would outlive him. She was a Gear, an inorganic being. Machines couldn’t age along with people. They were much easier to fix, too. He was still a young man himself, but ever since Sin’s passing he’d considered what their lives would be like with time. He supposed he could always just live through it and find out.

The years went by easy at first, with barely so much as a tune-up. But little by little, they added in deeper diagnostics and replacement parts. It was all standard procedure though, wasn’t it? It was only natural that things wore down. Same with people. But machines were lucky, it was easier to replace their parts. And Gears were commonplace by then, parts were easy to get. Easy to find the things that needed replacing every few years, then every other year, then every year.

Frederick had not been left unscathed by the sands of time, either. Aria had been swept away by the winter sicknesses, still far too young for it to be fair. The despair had thrown Frederick headlong into his work, trying to find a way to fill the void. It hadn’t been long before he had introduced Ky to Valentine, a Gear designed and modeled after her, so lifelike yet still so far from the real thing. Frederick had done his best to push every single pioneering technology into his machines, but that came at a price; new, unstable technology lasted shorter and shorter every time, no matter how hard he tried. Every few years, he finished a new Valentine- Elphelt, Ramlethal, Jack- each more and more impressive, but gradually more and more different from the real Aria until it was unrecognizable- completely alien in appearance, demeanour, and construction. His Valentines may have been Gears, but they became so different from Dizzy that they might as well have been a completely different species.

And maybe they should have seen that as a warning.

Humans built the machines in their image, but never truly understood the ramifications of it. Technology always marched forward, improving and advancing. With time, machine parts shifted in size and shape and composition, adding and dropping new bits and bobs until new parts no longer fit into older models. A creature designed to be virtually indistinguishable from a human was condemned to a slow degradation as they became obsolete.

There was a reason Gears had become a rarity in the past decade or so. Now they had Opus units, constantly innovating and improving as Gears had but without an independent mind or emotions to feel. Mankind had learned their mistake. Creating new Gears was illegal, but there was little that could be done for what Gears remained, aside from waiting for the last of them to wither and break down. 

The thought nearly drove Ky mad, how could they just leave them to die? How could they leave the Gears alone without any attempt to help? But all his anger and frustration and sadness couldn’t change reality. Time ticked onward.

No matter what they did, time slowly whittled away at Dizzy.

One of the prongs of her charger had grown too brittle and snapped off, and her battery leaked on all but the best of days. Her joints and cogs had worn down inside, giving her an awkward gait in the times when her limbs wouldn’t move properly, no matter how much she willed them to. Dizzy gradually grew less and less human- not that Ky would ever care, but he knew how heavily it weighed upon her. Little by little, the feathers of her wings became ratty and shed, leaving them as naked spindles covered only by a handful of blue-and-green, until she demanded that the useless frames be cut away. Her artificial skin weathered and thinned, and her obsolete parts made it impossible for it to heal over as human skin did. All he could do was bandage over the holes, more for her comfort of mind than anything else. After all, a Gear had no blood to lose.

He didn’t have Frederick to help him, not anymore. Too many failed Valentines had pushed him into reclusiveness somewhere in the mountains, and Ky wouldn’t have had the foggiest idea of where to start looking, if the man was even still alive at all. And if he was, there was no telling if Frederick could or would help him. But maybe if he didn't lose hope-

The insistent clicking of metal pulled Ky from his thoughts. He turned away from the fireplace, and Dizzy was there, watching him in silence. Not out of malice, not anything of the sort. She didn’t speak much these days, too afraid of it breaking off into a stutter or a metallic screech. There was a humiliation in all of it, a constant reminder that even with her complex, unique personality, she was still a machine. It dehumanized her. Crippled her. As much as Ky missed her beautiful singing voice, or the soft peals of laughter that seemed to fill every room, her dignity and self-worth was much more important than his comfort. 

“I was just reminiscing.” He said, in response to the quizzical tilt of her head. “Your father could never control that mane of his, could he?”

Dizzy covered her mouth with a hand, shoulder shaking with silent laughter. He almost wanted to warn her away when she began to approach, there was no point in trying to stop her. She caught sight of the picture inside the music box. Her expression turned melancholy as she reached for it, only to darken even further as she noticed her own hand, artificial skin barely concealing the metal and cables.

“You’re still beautiful.” Ky tried to assure her, cupping her cheek. “And even if you weren’t, I still love you with all my heart.”

She didn’t look convinced, but she still leaned into his touch and pressed her eyes shut. One lid twitched oddly before stilling. Reaching back out, he managed to grab the turn-key on the music box and began twisting it. Dizzy jerked to attention at the sound of clicks, but the tension in her body began easing as the first few notes plinked out.

“Such a lovely melody…”

“Mmm.” A little nod. Dizzy let go of his hand, by Ky immediately held on again, and lowered it to his hip.

“Would you like to dance with me, Dizzy?” He asked. “I know this song is your favorite.”

The woman offered no response, but she slid her feet into position and moved to lace their fingers together. Ky took her other hand and held it tight, feeling the exposed metal warm against his palm. Before either of them could hesitate, he pulled Dizzy into an abrupt but gentle twirl.

It was the same dance they always did, slow and calm. Their steps had grown a bit less coordinated, but they were still both skilled dancers. Out of the corner of his eye, Ky could almost see Sin on the couch, watching them with awe, clapping his little hands together until it was his turn to dance with his mother.

Metal fingers brushed his cheek. He turned back to see Dizzy smiling at him. No matter how much of her interior was exposed, how much her eyelights flickered and her joints creaked, she still had the most beautiful smile of anyone he’d ever met.

They led each other across the living room, with the fire’s light throwing their shadows up on the walls. The more it went on, the more Ky found himself smiling back. That’s just what Dizzy did, though, didn’t she? Just being around her put his soul at ease. He hoped that she felt the same way. Ky was well aware that he wasn’t perfect, but for all his neuroses and annoying quirks, he genuinely loved Dizzy, and was happy to have been able to spend his life with her.

No. No thinking like that, he told himself. It was easy to think such things, but Dizzy wasn’t gone. He couldn’t waste the time they had reminiscing and stewing in his own regrets. It wouldn’t be fair to her.

Ky felt a hoarse whisper brush his ear. “Ky, I- I- I- I-”

“Shh…” He stroked her hair. Their dance slowed into a gentle rocking back-and-forth. The motors ticked under her skin, just out-of-synch enough for it to be frustrating. He tried to focus on something else.

“Love...you...Ky…”

The metallic shriek to her voice made him wince, but he just as quickly recovered, squeezing her hand. “I love you, too.” He replied back. “More than anything in the world.”

For one moment, the whirring cogs managed to align with the melody perfectly. Ky tilted his wife’s head back to kiss her. Her warmth, her embrace, her love, all of it hit him in full force for that one perfect second. Ky wanted it to last forever, but

the music kept playing, 

the silver angel continued to spin,

and the world went on.


End file.
